Tonight his candle did i do take on the troubling state of Vaccine Distribution and his new found liberation. The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence, what the science is, and know thats it. Let the science speak. It is somewhat of a liberating feeling. All that and a massive push in the Biden Administration to untrump the federal government. All in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. The theme of president joe bidens Inauguration Day yesterday was unity. Unity in a deeply divided country. A country still trembling from the unprecedented violent insurrection directed against the Incoming Administration and members of commerce incited by the former president. That unity message was appropriate, i thought. Absolutory the right one for our country right now. But heres the stark reality. The stark reality is that one party cannot just declare unity and have it be so. Unity cannot be achieved unilaterally. It cannot be achieved without some course correction, some accountability, some selfreflection and an apology and retraction by those who played their part in the effort to overthrow the democratically elected government. Basically sought to destroy american democracy in its current form. What we say today one day after the inauguration, the first day of this new era, is no such apology shall be forthcoming. Congressional republicans, the Republican Party in general, will attempt to pretend it all just didnt happen. Turn the page and go back to the implacable obstruction theyre used to. A week ago, House Minority leader mccarthy admitted donald trump bore responsibility for the assault on the capitol. Today he said he doesnt think trump provoked the attack. Senator john cornyn of texas said, the senate should dismiss the article of impeachment against the now expresident who incited a violent mob that killed a cop and could have very well have killed his own Vice President. That happened two weeks ago. Despite the threat of up to a 10,000 fine, some House Republicans continue to ignore the newly installed metal derktors on the way to the house floor. Two refused to be wanded after setting off detectors. Don young hand what had looked like a knife back to his wife but dont worry, she said, it was a piece of metal. And maryland congressman andy harris said i believe it was a gun because a cop made a side holster motion to another cop. They refused to let him in. The member said he doesnt have a license. Fuller later confirmed about the Capitol Police official that harris was indeed carrying a gun. Two weeks after they and their colleagues were almost killed. The seriousness the republicans are showing the Capitol Police. Now in the senate, seven Senate Democrats led by Sheldon Whitehouse filed ethics complaints for encouraging the attack on the capitol. The complaint says they should face strong disciplinary action including up to expulsion and censure. And they should. Republicans have an obligation to apologize to the country, to patrol their caucus, and to exile the sedition faction, and not just tweeld minority power they now have to continue to obstruct an american democracy. If they will not do that, which they almost certain will you will not, then democrats with the power from the american beam rare control over both houses of congress, with the president who got more votes than anyone in history, who won by 7 million votes, and a Senate Majority derive from victory in the state of georgia where everyone knew the senate was on the line, they have a mandate, the democrats, to do things to improve peoples lives as quickly and as much as possible and to fortify american democracy against the forces that would seek to destroy it. If that can be done in a way that furthers unity, great. Unity on materials of refortifying american democracy, hatred, ed sxigs tyranny, thats great. Lets unit identify around that. But to the extent the Republican Party chooses to hold tight to that path, the path of donald trump, the path opposed to democracy, then the democrats new power must be wielded against them. Right now weve got a Crystal Clear example. Day one, right . We just started this today. Heres where we are. Senator Mitch Mcconnell is threatening to filibuster the organizing rules of the road for how the senate will be run. And in doing so, hes preventing democrats from carrying out the roles of the majority party. It is as the senator noted, absolutely unprecedented, counter productive. As i speak to you tonight, democrats have still not taken the majority because Mitch Mcconnell is obstructing that. The same Mitch Mcconnell who whipped his caucus against trumps first Impeachment Vote when he was warned, they were all warned that trump would do things to hurt the country. The same Mitch Mcconnell who refused to negotiate the procedure for the trial. The same Mitch Mcconnell who of course facilitated and aided and abetted donald trump and his dangerous deadly destructive wins that have led to hundreds of thousands of american deaths and attack on the capitol and democracy hanging by a thread. The same Mitch Mcconnell who for weeks refused to acknowledge joe biden was the victor even though he knew he was, and in so doing gave life to the dangerous and dead will he conspiracy theories that would come crashing through the capitol doors. That mcconnell still retains his position as Senate Minority leader. Democrats will have to clues very soon. Do they roll over for phony calls for unity . Absolve the party . Or do they wield the rare power they have won through democratic and legitimate means to repair democracy in peoples lives . Im joined now by Sheldon Whitehouse who filed against krus and hawley. I want to start with this weird situation we find ourselves in. This impasse over the organizing resolution. Can you explain whats going on here . I think it is early power struggle with mitch trying to find leverage for himself. To the extent that he is counting on people in the Democratic Caucus to oppose procedural reforms. I think he is really undermining himself, mcconnell is right now. Hes making the case for procedural reforms the allow a majority to do its business. Hes essentially, as i understand it, threatening a filibuster of the basic resolution you need to do business and there by using that threat to deny the democrats, the majority and the gavel and committee chairmanships. Yeah. Well, tech anybodily we would have the gavels but not the new members assigned to different committees. So the floor would continue to operate more or less the regular way under senate rules with Chuck Schumer as majority leader but the real rubber hitting the road is in the committees, where the new members arent seated except for pursuant to that order. So when democratic chairman calls a committee into session, we may still have a minority because of the way people moved around, and obviously, thats not what the voters intended. Not the way the senate works. Not the way the constitution works. Just a Mitch Mcconnell maneuver. So to me, what this illuminates is that the question will be called whether you, Sheldon Whitehouse, want it or not. You have the narrowest of majorities but it is a majority. The question is, will you be able to govern or not . That seems the me what the deeper issue is whatever the gambit is. Right. So what are you going to do . Well, we have to work through this. The first thing is that we need to be sure that well have President Bidens support and were proceeding in unison as we do these things. There were a couple of buckets we can work our way into. One is, a lot of this procedural stuff, involving nominations and the executive calendar. We can simply outlast them on the floor. And it will take some physically being there, late hours and weekends and all of that. At some point it backs physical game of just towering them out until they go to mitch and say knock it off. We want our weekends again. And we may need to do that. In some cases, it is a matter of rule 14ing bills to the floor even though they havent been to committee and start forcing difficult votes on the senate floor. And using the power of the majority leader on the floor to begin to get to work and theres a great bucket, chris, of bills that we could probably pass with 70 or 80 votes. But plich didnt like them either because his donors didnt like them or they split his caucus. So they won by great big numbers. He would never let them to the floor. Well, he can smoke out republican support now and smoke out opposers to actually take a stand, very often opposed to what america wants. So we are not without tools. We have to have the resolve and the willingness and the sticktoitiveness to fight through it. You announced today this letter. It is signed on by seven democrats. And it is quite rare, i will say. It is a letter looking for a formal ethics investigation of your colleagues the, josh hawley and ted cruz, two of the voices in leading the effort to denial the seating of electors, the legitimate electors of the United States who voted against them. It would have led to, if they were successful, why did you feel moved to take this action . Well, the senate has to. If you count on the fbi or Law Enforcement agencies to inquire into the truck in of the senate, they run into the debate clause is that the separation of powers and the constitution gives the senate the power to oversee the members. The senate has to do something. The senate has consigned this. Because we dont yet know what senators cruz and hawley did, it is hard to judge how to respond. So we requested an investigation so we can find out how close cruz and hawley were to the sedition plan and what role they had in it. Was it aid and comfort . Aiding and abetting . Full on conspiracy . Was it accessory . What was their relationship with the crimes that we know indisputably occurred within the capitol . It is absolutely clear that there are votes and, that their votes and opinions are their own and protected by the first amendment. This is inquiring, what else did they do beyond standing up and voting . Were they involved with the funders . With the organizing groups . Worst Case Scenario, their objections were designed to held to senate process open longer, specifically to allow the attack on the capitol. To have a larger window to succeed and disrupt. You dont have evidence of that specifically. Youre saying thats the worst thats exactly the kind of stuff that i think the senate needs to know to make an appropriate decision to expulsion, censure, discipline, whatever is appropriate at the end of an investigation. As a former prosecutor, ill a big believer you dont go to the penalty until youve done your investigation, had your findings of fact and made a decision on what took place. There will be some finding of fact at the impeachment trial, which today the Senate Minority leader Mitch Mcconnell, where wants to admit he is or not, proposed a little bit of a delay until february. And i wondered your response to that proposed time line. I am okay with whatever the time line is. I think that every defendant needs he a chance to hire a lawyer, put their case together and prepare for a trial. That would give President Trump a chance to do this. And at the same time, it gives as you chance to think through what the trial should look like. I would expect that the house managers will be fairly brief. That theyll be smart and expeditious about their case. You dont need on learn about ukraine for this. It happened right in front of us. That gives us the ability when weve locked in the the timing for the house managers to limit the time that a Trump Defense can waste if theyre trying to. Then we pick a time, go through and get it done with. Any luck we can do it in the mornings and legislate in the afternoons. But well need more cooperation from leader mcconnell on that. Famous last words. Well need more cooperation from leader mcconnell. Thank you so much for making time tonight. Of course. Good to be with you. Next, democrats need to act fast if they have any hope of passing legislation can. They stay out of their own way and get it done . Well talk about that next. Don . Well talk about that next r thef a 165point certification process. Or it isnt. Its either testing an array of advanced safety systems. Or it isnt. 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That is, we feel that package, he feels that package is designed for bipartisan support. A get answer from her. We are right now in the midst of a disaster. It continues. Almost 4,000 americans dying just today from covid. And we have underestimated this disease over and over and over again. Will we do it again . The question lies before both parties. But particularly republicans in the United States senate. What they want to do. So far theyre showing signs that they want to obstruct. So then whats to be done . I bring in two people well versed on whats in store for joe biden. Heather mcgee, the Largest Online racial organization, the author of the sum of us. What racism costs us. I have read it and it is outstanding and you should go pre order it now. And the staff writer for the atlantic whose latest piece is titled, the coming republican amnesia. Lets start on that, mckay. I knew this was going to happen partly because i lived through the end of the bush administration. George bush, who is he . Where did we end up on that . I knew this was going to happen. Like everyone will pretend two weeks ago there was not a violent mob that killed a cop as it tried to overthrow the democratically elected government. Theyll just go back to doing what theyre doing. I wonder what the problem is. Heres what i foresee. You cant have bipartisan compromise if the other people on the other side of the table dont blank they want and that is deeply the problem right now. It was the problem in the last round of cares act negotiations. They dont know what they want or what they stand for. So it is impossible to even negotiate with them. Yeah. This is going to be a problem for the Republican Party for a while now. For the last four years, every republican policy priority was dictated by the whims of donald trump. That meant they never really had a coherent plan. Now that donald trump is gone, now even more so, dont have a coherent plan. The Republican Party is fracturing. Theyre not just fracturing on ideological grounds. Theyre fracturing on what to make of the last four years. Right . There is a faction of the Republican Party that remains deeply loyal to the maga cause and donald trump and basically, denying reality. There is another faction of the Republican Party that would like to erase oh, no. It looks like we actually lost him. Sometimes those just freeze a little bit. Thats part of the fun of covid broadcasting. Heather, heres the thing about this moment to me. Right . It is very early. Day one. The priority, the first thing, there is legislative text for immigration reform. That probably cant go through reconciliation either way. But the covid relief package is urgent, i think it is popular. Send people checks. It is endorsed by the claim better of commerce and bernie sanders. It is rare you get that. It seems like the highest possible ground to move. Thats right. And lets be fundamental here. Talk about first principles. Government allows us to do things we cant do on our own and right now is the biggest, highest Case Scenario for when every single american needs the government to act. To control the pandemic, to address the four crazies that President Biden spoke of yesterday. Democrats have the high ground. They represent 40 million more people than the republican dozen in the senate. Their agenda is wildly popular and the Republican Party barely has an agenda and it is barely popular with the base of their own party. What mcconnell wants, what he has right now, the democrats have not been willing to take it from him. It is more than a filibuster. He is not Jimmy Stewart on the senate floor talking himself into oblivion about representing the little guy against corrupt powers. This is a minority veto. A mcconnell vote that allows to us not even get to a vote on things that are so popular. I do believe people like senator manchin who said they dont want to end the filibuster can be heroes by bringing back the talking filibuster. This is the question now and this gambit that we talked about in the first section with senator whitehouse that they are doing now is a recaller not to be fooled. Act on behalf of the American People. Democrats will say, what if were in the minority again . The best thing to not be in the minority again is to kill the minority veto and get things done for the American People that are popular and then people will send you back to washington. I will say john tester from montana, a state donald trump won twice, he was able to get reflected 2018. A tough battle, a hard state to win. He said the same thing. We cant get stuff double around here. If we dont, the inmates will be running this ship. Mckay, you got cut off as you were talking about what the lessons are. It seems to me the one thing they can unify on is obstruction. The thing they cant, what do you want . If we said to you, okay, give us your counter proposal, i dont even know who begins to put pen to paper on that. No. There is no leader of the Republican Party and thats the problem. It is not clear who the policy minds are. Where the ideological vision is coming from. The party will remain fractured on that for the foreseeable future. What do you think mcconnells play here is to retain as much power as possible. But i think theres a danger of forcing the issue, mckay. He wants to have this fight on what he thinks are favorable procedural grounds so he can retain power but there is a danger that he ends up radicalizing people like joe manchin. I think we might have lost him again what do you say to that . I think it should radicalize him. I think it should take the veil off this talk, this smoke screen about unity. We should be talking about people unable to afford their rent. Single parents dealing with this. Talking about the widespread pain in this country from a largely preventable economic crisis. And people being forced to make terrible choices because we havent simply sent people money and allowed people to stay home and take care of their families and stay safe while the science caught up. So thats really the question and i think that the moderate wing of the Democratic Party has got their history wrong. It is a jim crow era relic. Not something madison wanted. It is something calhoun wanted, switch which is required reading for this moment. One of the many ways that Structural Racism is holding back the hands of progress. Not just for people of color but for everyone. Im not going to risk it again, mckay. It was good to have you while you were here. Thank you both for making time. All right. Next, a liberated Anthony Fauci makes his bidenera debut. What he said about the vaccine rollout and what this administration will do differently, after this. Stratioo differently, after this. 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Fauci, the nations top Infectious Disease expert, was allowed to answer questions from the White House Briefing room for the first time in 63 days. He didnt take long for him to note the differences in his new job. One of the new things in this administration, if you dont know the answer, dont guess. Just say you dont know the answer. One of the things well do is to be completely transparent, open and honest. If things go wrong, not point fingers but to correct them. And to make everything we do be based on science and evidence. That was literally a conversation i had 15 minutes ago with the president. You joked a couple times today already about the difference in, that you feel, in being kind of the spokesperson for this issue in this administration versus the previous one. Can you talk a little bit about how free, how much different, do you feel less constrained . I mean, for so many times you stood up behind a podium with donald trump standing behind you. That was a different feeling, ill sure, than it is today. Can you talk a little about how you feel kind of released from what you had been doing for the last year . But you said i was joking about it. I was very serious. About it. I wasnt joking. No, actually, i mean, obviously, i dont want to be going back over history. But it is very clear that there were things that were said, things like hydroxychloroquine and things like that, that really was uncomfortable because they were not based on scientific fact. I can tell you, i take no pleasure at all in being in a situation of contradicting the president. So it was really something that you didnt feel that you could actually Say Something and there wouldnt be any repercussions about it. The idea that you could get up here and talk about what you know, what the science is, and know, thats it. Let the science speak. It is somewhat of a liberating feeling. Basically banished for a few months there for a while. Do you feel like youre back now . I think so. Joining me now to talk about both the return of dr. Fauci unshackled, as well as where we are with Vaccine Distribution, a Health Policy analyst, pulitzer winner, she wrote the coming plague in a world out of balance. First, the idea that the way it usually works, which it didnt work this way during the pandemic, the administrations usually take this time for folks, cdc people or whatever. They just put them out there to talk to the press. Thats usually how it has been in the past. It was a reminder of that today. Yes. In the past, in every prior serious outbreak or mysterious outbreak that we didnt fully understand, it has been the centers for disease control. Their lead scientific teams. Tony fauci and list scientific team, playing the front line role, answering public questions he and Holding Daily press briefings. And of course, weve never had that in any realistic term since this outbreak began under the Trump Administration. So this is very refreshing and i know tony and im sure that he is feeling like a lot of lead weights have been pulled off his shoulders. Now he carries a new burden. As to his counter parts, like rochelle welinski now running the cdc, counter parts throughout the entire infrastructure of health in the Biden Administration, they carry the burden of trying to save, you know, a couple hundred thousand american lives. Were currently on a trajectory that just wont work. On the one hand, were managing lets see. Our daily average is about 940,000 people a day have been getting vaccinated. At that pace, it will take us 362 days to vaccinate america. Which is utterly unacceptable, given the current pace of spread of the virus and the arrival of these mutant variant strains that appear to be hyper transmissible,heimer contagious. So we have this race underway and weve got to get this pace of vaccine vastly improved. But what are we seeing . Were seeing people like myself going over and over and over again, trying to make appointments. Finally getting an appointment and it is for the past. Given a date that has already elapsed is my appointment. Finally going and getting a real appointment and be compelled to assistant in line in 29degree weather outside for three hours before gaining entry to the actual facility for an injection. And none of us know, will the second shots be there when were ready . When our 21 to 28 days have elapsed . And new york just put out a memo that was sent to me by a friend from our subway system. The mta. Which is a high priority group. He was scheduled to be vaccinated today. And instead, he received this notice, covid19 Vaccine Health appointments rescheduled due to a shortage of vaccine supply. All first dose appointments scheduled at a covid hub for january 2124 will be rescheduled. Let me stop you there. I want to zoom in. There is a sufficient supply, distribution was going too slowly. It seems that we are now, today we vaccinated about 1. 3 million people. So more people getting vaccinated. Were now hitting a supply problem. It is not so much on the distribution end. What you tracks with things ive heard from people i know who have appointments made and canceled. So the question is twofold. One is a million a day was the target the Biden Administration announced. It seals like that target is too low. If were doing a million a day now, we should be trying to double or triple that. The question is what has to happen between now and the next 100 days to make that possible . Well, the city of los angeles issued a report saying at the current pace of availability of vaccine, and their personnel capacity because of course, keep in mind. They have a massive epidemic unfolding. And most of the Health Personnel is busy treating patients. Not available to do vaccination. So at their pace, theyre saying it will take four months just to do the over 65yearold population of los angeles. Well, this is unacceptable. We have to get much faster. But of course, the big difference that we saw today, chris, with all the pronouncements from President Biden himself, Vice President harris, tony fauci, assorted cast of characters, and ten new executive orders signed this morning in addition to those signed yesterday. The sum total of all of it is, well go from having had an epidemic that was run, if you want to say it even was in an organization fashion, was run by the states with the federal government being hands off except to occasionally throw supplies their way. And for operation warp speed to make a vaccine get manufactured. Now were going to flip this whole equation so that the federal government is in charge. And the states will be given clear instructions, priorities will be set. Other prevention parameters, everything related to try to slow this epidemic down will come from the federal level and filter down. The only shortcomings i saw in this more than 100page strategic analysis that was released today by the president , there were just a couple of lapses. One was they dont say anywhere that they will seek the actually standardize testing. And under the Trump Administration, so Many Companies were given the green light by the trump fda to make various types of covid tests that the quality of those tests and the level of specificity of them is all over the place. It would be nice to see some standardization to see what were really seeing. The other lapse, a much more serious one that needs to get addressed immediately is that our Public Health infrastructure around america is very weak. It has been grossly underfunded for years. In many states, they have just hacked away at local Public Health budgets to the point where people are using fax machines and windows 98 to try to communicate and to log their data. And nowhere in the report does it say how will they update all of this . Where is the infrastructure going to come from to make it possible for data retrieval to be timely . For us to not have a sixweek lag in death data but have it when it really is during in realtime. Thank you so much for making time. Appreciate it. Always for you, chris. Thank you. Coming up, President Biden is cleaning house, waste nog time on some of the biggest debacles of the Trump Administration. T debacles of the Trump Administration its time for sleep numbers january sale on the sleep number 360 smart bed. Can it help with snoring . Ive never heard snoring. Exactly. No problem. And done. And now, save 1,000 on the sleep number 360 special Edition Smart bed, now 1,799. Only for a limited time. 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When he got elected at the start of the administration, trump and his strategist steve bannon made a show of being serious about it. Eight days into the presidency, they issued a drain the swamp executive order which banned executive Branch Appointees from taking jobs lobbying the agencies where they worked for a period of five years after leaving the government job. Also banned them from lobbying for foreign entities for life. Bannon went on tv to say they were tonight republicans serious about draining the swamp. Mitch mcconnell, when we first met him, he said, i think in one of the first meetings in trump tower with the president , as were wrapping up. He basically says, i dont want to hear any more of this drain the swamp talk. Mitch mcconnell day one did not want to go there. He wanted us to back off. What an amazingly courageous and righteous warrior for ethics. Thats what they said. What they did was, of course, preside over the most corrupt administration in modern American History with trump leveraging his position for personal gain, rewarding his donors with tax cuts and his closest aides were charged with crimes ranging from lying to campus to tax fraud and campaign violations. The swamp was never more putrid. We all saw that. After leaving the white house, bannon himself was indicted, charged with, get this, defrauding those who gave money to his scheme the supposedly build the border wall that mexico was supposed to pay for. Federal prosecutors say bannon kept nearly 1 million for himself. He was arrested on the yacht of a chinese billionaire. In other words, he was charged with ripping off the same trump support heres had chanted, drain the swamp at trump rallies. So it was so fitting, so perfect, that in his final hours in office, trump both pardoned bannon for giving his crime of allegedly fleecing trumps own most diehard supporters, and then with literally a few hours remaining in his term, trump rescinded the lobbying ban he had put in place at the stuart of his material. What about the swamp . Joe bidens first day, he instituted a new ban. No lobbying for two years after leaving the administrationful one of the thing biden is doing to reverse the damage done by trump. A long list. The untrumpening. Next. Next its either the assurance of a 165point certification process. Or it isnt. Its either testing an array of advanced safety systems. Or it isnt. Its either the peace of mind of a standard unlimited mileage warranty. Or it isnt. For those who never settle, its either mercedesbenz certified preowned. Or it isnt. The mercedesbenz certified preowned sales event. Now through march 1st. Shop online or drop by your local dealer today. 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He is already moving quickly to erase the stain of his twiceimpeached predecessor. Yesterday, biden ousted three trump appointees. Ceo of the u. S. Agency for global media who came under fire for pushing a really corrupt, protrump agenda with an organization thats supposed to be an actual, reporting entity. The director of the consumerfinancial protection bureau. And peter rob, general counsel for the National LaborRelations Board where Union Leaders say he actively worked against labor interests. He moved to suspend deportations for certain immigrants for 100 days, preserve the daca program, protecting undocumented immigrants who came to the u. S. As children. President signed an executive order recommitting the u. S. To the paris climate agreement. He cancelled the agreement for the keystone pipeline. Bidens top priority, fixing the response to the coronavirus. Hes already signed at least ten executive orders and directives to accelerate federal action, including rejoining the world health organization, and requiring masks be worn on all federal property. Chris lu knows firsthand what it is for a new administration coming in with a lot of messes to clean up. Former deputy labor secretary under president obama and he joins me now. Chris, i wonder, as you as you look at the first 30 hours here, and some of these actions. How they compare to the way the Obama White House thought about the the the sort of what was in front of them, what they could or could not do, from an executive position, in those first days because i think it changed over time, particularly in the second term. Yeah, you know, the Biden White House deserves a lot of credit for getting out of the gate, so quickly, on so many important policy priorities. And i think theyve learned the mistakes from the obama administration, which is not to wait until later in your administration to do these executive orders. Now, to be fair, a lot of these executive orders will require regulations to implement them. Ultimately, some of these problems were talking about, whether its Climate Change or immigration, is going to require legislation. Yes. But if you get these executive orders in place, quickly, you start to effectuate change that then gets much harder to roll back later in your administration. Now, look, republicans are going to complain about this, as they always do. But joe biden is simply following the playbook that donald trump used over the past four years. And frankly, we didnt see a lot of complaining about executive overreach during that period of time. Well, and also, the interesting thing, right, that playbook was executed so incompetently so often. But then, they just kept violating, you know, federaladministrative law. And and getting courts telling them, no, you cant do this. You have to actually show reasons and have a process. So, dotting the is and crossing the ts legally here seems to be really important as well. Its, 100 , correct. Lets remember the very first thing or one of the first things the Trump Administration did was the muslimtravel ban. They signed this piece of paper. They didnt bother clearing it with the defense department, state department, homeland security, all the different agencies that would have to implement this. And then, we saw these you know, confusion at airports. They kept getting struck down in court on the muslim ban, environmental rollbacks, labor rollbacks. So, yes, signing a piece of paper is incredibly important. But actually doing it right, and then doing all of the other steps along the way to get it implement is as important because, trust me, on a lot of these executive orders, you are going to now start to see republican state attorney generals try to challenge them in court. I think thats guaranteed, right . We will see state attorneys general, republican state attorneys general, sue on all this stuff. They have already announced they are going to do that. So, youve got to have a solid case. There is also the personnel aspect which i think is fascinating. But this battle over the general counsel which seems obscure. Why does that matter . Well, this is someone who the labor unions thought was just stacking the deck against them. Wields a tremendous amount of power in a board that controls labor law, effectively, in the u. S. Who had ten months to go and it was a fairly aggressive move to tell this guy to resign. They then fired his deputy. What do you think about that . What do you think it means to take these kinds of actions . Look. I think the biden people understand that personnel is pool policy. And the general counsel is the person who decides what cases to prosecute, what cases to bring before the board. The board, right now, is a 31 republicancontrolled board. So, if you continue to have a general counsel who continues to bring forward the cases in a way that harms workers, that undercuts the collecting collective bargaining rights of of employees in this country, you are continue you are going to continue to have an antiworker agenda. So, this was an important step, as was the the the personnel decision at voices of america, as well as the cfpb. These are important boards and commissions that we dont often think about, but they can have really powerful impacts on how government runs. There is an irony here, of course, right . Which is that conservatives, particularly judicial conservatives, have been arguing for this theory that, basically, that the president is the unitary executive, right . Like, he runs the entire branch of congress. That its unconstitutional to delegate too much authority administratively outside his purview. Well, then, you know, i guess, its one of those, you know, make lemonade out of lemons, right . If you if you got the power, then you might as well get in there and use it. Its exactly right. You will hear some republican act these personnel moves. But the ralty is this is the game that was set up by them. These were the roles they created, the court cases they brought forward. And this is now, you know, left in a President Biden, these are the personnel decisions that he is allowed to make. Let me just say one other thing, chris. I mean, whether its personnel or policy. What joe biden is doing is important but lets not forget. The real damage. The real corrosive impact that donald trump has had is on the decimation of ethics and the rule of law and the racist dogwhistles and the blatant disregard for truth and facts and science. And so, while these policy changes are important, boy, its going to take much, much longer to undo that broader damage that donald trump has done, over the past four years. Yeah, that brings us full circle where we started the show tonight. I mean, majority of House Republicans voted to overturn the election. And as far as i can tell, no ones retracted or apologized. That remains the central single plot line in politics, at this moment. Chris lu, thank you so much for your time tonight. That is all in on this thursday night. The Rachel Maddow show starts right now. Good evening, rachel. Good evening, chris, my friend. Much appreciated. Really happy to have you here. All right. This was today. In federal court, in harrisburg, pennsylvania. Federal magistrate judge named martin c. Carlson was presiding. Ready . Here we go. The judge. Ms. Williams. I want to note for you that one of the reasons you are going home today is because, in a desperate time, in the glare of of public scrutiny, your mother has stepped forward and promised to serve as a thirdparty custodian. And you heard my questions to her, did you not, maam . The defendant, i did, your honor. The judge, and you heard that your mother has promised that if there are violations of these conditions, she will report them to me. And she has made that promise, understanding that if she breaks that promise, she could be criminally charged. Do